Covering Canadian figure skating since 2011

Live-Tweeting Today’s Champions

This weekend I live-tweeted the latter portion of the Wild Rose Invitational [#WildRose] figure skating competition in Leduc, Alberta over two days. It was fun, inspiring, challenging – and an adrenaline rush.

When I told my husband I thought I’d live-tweet the event, I barely had the words out of my mouth before he grabbed the laptop, a note pad and said – “get tweeting.” I quickly printed up the skater’s names, the schedule and plugged in my ear buds. I sent out my first tweet on Saturday evening.

My breaks were between ice resurfacing and warm ups, and meals were inhaled. I tweeted, and hashtagged, and retweeted, and got retweeted, and followed – and watched some great skating. The next day, it was back to tweeting. Three flights of Novice Women Free, and one flight of Junior Men Free.

What did I gain from the experience? Perseverance. Something I have – I just needed to be challenged.

What do I hope the skaters and coaches gained from it? Recognition. Exposure.

Kurt Browning wasn’t always Kurt Browning. Joannie Rochette wasn’t always Joannie Rochette. Success doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time, and the road is long, and it can be bumpy. Everyone needs support. We pay more attention to the figure skaters already at the top, rather than skaters still trying to climb the ladder. They, too, need support and help, and cheers and applause.

Some of the skaters from this weekend will be going to the Canadian Figure Skating Championships this year and beyond, and eventually to the 2014 and 2018 Olympics.